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Coolen grateful to snare Vidosic

Having landed one of the Hyundai A-League’s most significant off season signings after losing last season’s league MVP Marcos Flores to the Chinese Super League, Reds Head Coach Rini Coolen was sure to make a point of thanking the club’s owners in gaining the signature of Qantas Socceroos midfielder Dario Vidosic.

Having landed one of the Hyundai A-League-s most significant off season signings after losing last season-s league MVP Marcos Flores to the Chinese Super League, Reds Head Coach Rini Coolen was sure to make a point of thanking the club-s owners in gaining the signature of Qantas Socceroos midfielder Dario Vidosic.

Rini Coolen-s convincing skills and intent to play a fluent, attacking style of football may have been reasons behind new signing Dario Vidosic-s decision to come to Adelaide, but the Reds Head Coach insists the deal could not have been done without the backing of the club-s owners.

“I really want to thank the club-s board members for making it happen that we could talk about a contract for Dario and bring him in as an Australian marquee player,” a delighted Coolen said.

“Next to our marquee player Sergio van Dijk it-s the first time we could bring in a marquee player and it-s fantastic that the owners allowed us to make it happen to bring a player in of Dario-s level.”

“I-m happy that they (the owners) understand the situation and they supported our decision to bring Dario over, so it probably wasn-t possible before Flores left us, but the moment he did, it became an opportunity and I-m very happy, not that I-ve lost Marcos Flores, but that we have been able to replace him for Dario.”

“Again, we have to thank the club-s owners for understanding the situation and using a part of what we got for Flores to bring back a player who is at a high level to our club. I think that-s what the club wants and it-s also what our supporters deserve.”

“We couldn-t stop Marcos leaving the club and the club got some important money for that, but they (the owners) also gave something back to the football department to make our squad as good as possible and I think that-s fantastic.”

With Vidosic happy to commit the next three years of his career to the Reds, Coolen also reserved a thank you for Qantas Socceroos Head Coach Holger Osieck.

“I think it-s also important to thank national team coach Holger because he showed last season that if you do well in the A-League, you have a chance to be picked in the national team and I think this is definitely one of the reasons that Dario was thinking positively about coming back to Australia,” Coolen said.

Vidosic may be taking on the number previously worn by ‘fan favourite- Flores, but according to Coolen, he is by no means set, nor expected, to fill the vacancy left by the Argentinean.

“He-s not a replacement for Marcos Flores). It-s not easy to replace a type of player like Marcos as a number 10 player, but as I said we prefer to play with four attackers who can swap positions and he (Vidosic) is wearing our number 10 but that doesn-t mean he-s playing in the number 10 position,” Coolen said.

“I prefer that those players can swap and have a lot of freedom to express themselves.”

“Dario fits exactly into our system. We were looking for players at the front who can play on the right side, on the left side and behind the striker because we will not disappoint our supporters.”

“We prefer to play for the top positions of the league and we prefer to play attacking football, entertaining football, and if you can fill players like Dario into your squad, that-s fantastic for the whole league and fantastic for our club.”

Vidosic-s signing could be seen as a bonus for Coolen. United can now boast a fine attacking arsenal with Vidosic joining the likes of Sergio van Dijk, Bruce Djite, Zenon Caravella, Andy Slory and Iain Ramsay, however Coolen knows the importance of having an even balance of forward and defensive stocks.

Prior to the Vidosic announcement, Coolen-s highest recruiting priority has arguably been on finding quality central defenders. This search is continuing as the Dutchman looks to put the finishing touches on his squad list for the Reds- season opener, which is against Perth Glory on Sunday, October 9.